Called to Glory

I had just arrived home from school, books in hand, when I noticed a strange man sitting outside my bedroom window. I understood at once that he was trying to break in.

“Hey!” I called, no plan in mind.

He turned around, sneering, a staple gun in his hand. He pointed the gun at me like it was a Glock.

I shielded myself with a binder.

“What are you doing!?” I shrieked.

In one breath, the scene changed. The man’s workshop tool turned into a real handgun and the outside world melted away. We now stood inside my bedroom. No one else was in the house. No one would hear me scream.

My knees shook and my breathing grew heavy. If he was going to shoot, why didn’t he just shoot? I kept my binder in front of me, my only protection from his deadly bullets.

“Who are you? What do you want?” It took everything in me to keep my voice from failing.

He smiled. One of the most evil, vicious smiles I’ve ever seen. He spoke with a rumble, his voice like a violent, throaty hiss.

“I’m the demon who’s been sent to kill you,” he said.

My fear immediately fled. With those words, peace filled me. I dropped the binder, stood straight up, and looked him in the eye.

“Well, in that case,” I said. “In Jesus’ name be gone!”

The demon disappeared.

I woke up.

“Less” than Christ?

Though I had that dream a good six years ago, it still speaks to me.

For years I thought of myself as a “lesser being.” As one who is less valuable, less powerful than Jesus Christ. I should bow down and worship him because I am weak and frail–I depend upon him for the very breath I draw.

And, while this is true to an extent, the Bible teaches us that we are more than lowly servants, serving Jesus out of obligation. No one is making us. No one is holding us down.

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” – Romans 8:17

Jesus is the son of God. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But we are also the children of God. We have been adopted into His house as sons and daughters of the Most High. Doesn’t that mean we are also kings and queens? That we are co-heirs with Christ?

Responsibility

God didn’t send his son to save us so He could create a bunch of weak little minions. Jesus chose to save us so that we may have life and have it to the full. He wanted us to experience what it’s like to be not just a servant of God, but a child of God.

With that we’re given responsibility. We’re called to serve Him, as Jesus did. We’re called to great works, as Jesus was. We are called to live a life of sacrifice and servitude, just like Jesus. But there’s an important distinction to make–

We are not called to serve God out of a sense of debt. We are only able to serve Him because he first served us. To love Him because He first loved us. We don’t do anything for Him because he makes us or “guilts” us into it. It comes from an overflow of the grace, love and power He has given to us.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12

We have been given power and authority. We can walk in the confidence that comes with being a child of God because we are children of God. We have been given authority over the earth–even that part which we cannot see.